Latch assemblies for motor vehicles are generally well-known in the art. In most motor vehicles, a hood is used to enclose the engine or luggage compartment of the motor vehicle. Such hoods are typically situated so as to be opened from the front of the vehicle and hinged along a rearward edge, such that the hood opens from the front of the vehicle. The hood is typically equipped with one or more strikers attached to the lower surface near the forward edge of the hood. The striker is situated to interact and to be restrained by the latch assembly attached to the motor vehicle chassis, likewise located proximate the forward edge of the hood. As is common in the industry, a latch release handle is typically situated in the occupant compartment, typically near the driver's side kick panel or under the instrument panel. The handle is typically connected via a bowden cable to a latch release lever operatively connected to a primary latch of the latch assembly. Upon actuation of the hood release handle in the occupant compartment, the bowden cable pulls on the latch release lever, thereby releasing the striker from the primary latch of the latch assembly. At this point, the hood is partially opened to a pre-determined height, such as about 35 to 40 mm, and is held to this position by a secondary latch.
Such secondary latches are manually operated while in front of the vehicle, such that in the event of an inadvertent release of the primary latch handle or failure of the primary latch while the vehicle is in motion, the hood will not abruptly raise due to wind pressure. Rather, the secondary latch requires an operator standing in front of the vehicle to manually operate the secondary latch to free the hood striker from the secondary latch of the latch assembly, thereby allowing the hood to be fully raised, providing access to the engine in the engine compartment and/or luggage within the luggage compartment.
Thus, in the context of such latch assemblies having primary and secondary latches, after the operator pulls the primary latch release lever from inside the passenger compartment, the hood is released from engagement with the primary latch and moved to a secondary latch release position. The operator then must move to the front of the vehicle in close proximity to the hood where the operator must then search for and locate a secondary latch release handle by inserting his or her fingers under the partially opened hood and then actuate the handle left or right (or up or down, depending the vehicle design) to release the secondary latch. The hood can then be fully opened, either manually or through some other assist mechanism, such as gas cylinders or torsion springs.
The location of the secondary latch release handle varies significantly from vehicle to vehicle. Particularly to an operator unfamiliar with the motor vehicle he or she may be operating, the secondary latch release handle can be frustratingly difficult to locate by touch alone. It is often difficult to see through the narrow, partial opening of the hood, particularly in poorly lit areas or at night. Hence, a latch assembly which overcomes these drawbacks would be advantageous.
The hood latch disclosed herein particularly accomplishes the foregoing by adapting the present typical motor vehicle hood latch assembly described above through the use of a secondary latch handle arm that is extended longitudinally forward from a retracted position to a deployed position upon disengagement of the primary latch, so that the secondary latch release handle arm is presented to the operator by forward translational motion of the extended secondary latch handle arm extending forward beyond the hood of the motor vehicle for ready actuation.
Thus, the solution presented by the present disclosure is a relatively low-cost solution that automatically presents a forward-extending and readily available secondary latch release handle arm upon the release of the primary latch, providing for convenient and confident actuation of the secondary latch release handle.